AS WE go towards the August election date, the sober people who have remained in PF should know that what is killing their party is nothing but the irresponsible talk coming from the leadership. Arrogance, ignorance and failure are a very bad cocktail. When you have a leadership that has these attributes in abundance, nothing good can come out of it.

We are saying this following a suggestion from the PF national Chairman, Mr Samuel Mukupa who is telling Zambians that if bread and mealie meal have become too expensive for them, they must turn to kandolo and other alternative foods. To us this sounds like a party that is in self-destruct mode. What this tells us is that there is complete failure of leadership in PF.

To be fair to Mr Mukupa, if he was making such a suggestion to his family, this would be understood. We say this because thinking about such a solution to the prevailing economic situation is one thing, but saying it out to the public paints a very sad picture about leadership failure. One may even consider it an insult to the people who are struggling to have even one meal a day.

We are concerned that these people in PF don’t seem to understand the essence of government. When citizens vote for you, they vote on the basis of what you promise to do for them. PF did not promise more Kandolo in the stomach, they promised more money in the pockets. The understanding was that MMD had failed and they had messed up the economy. This is when PF came in and promised to change things for the better. The campaign promise was not moving from bread to Kandolo, it was lowering taxes so that families can afford two loaves of bread if they need that much.

It is worrying that while things are getting exceptionally expensive, there doesn’t seem to be an economic recovery message from PF in this campaign. It appears they have told all the lies a politician can tell and they are now improvising solutions which they never promised the people. The PF should have been saying when we got into power, you were eating Kandolo, but now you are eating bread, so vote us back.

The PF has failed on every indicator, but that is okay because we all fail sometimes in our endeavours. But when you are a failure, who is also arrogant and ignorant about what you are talking about, that becomes a very bad cocktail. When you are a failure, people may tolerate you, and when you are ignorant, they may share some knowledge and correct you where you go wrong. But when you are arrogant on top of those ugly attributes, it makes it difficult for people to work with you. Leadership is about humility, and there is no humility that we can see in PF.

No responsible leader would say something like that. And this is not the first time that we are hearing something like this from the PF. Last week, madam Jean Kapata who is a member of the ruling party’s Central Committee and former Lands Minister said Zambians must think outside the box and be innovative while tightening their belts. She said Zambians should trust the PF and vote them back in power so that they can resolve the economic challenges.

Why should the people of Zambia trust a party that is asking them to fix their own challenges in the face of a collapsing economy? It sounds okay to tell people to think outside the box and be innovative, but how do you forget that they elected you to make their lives better by ensuring that the economy is performing? The people elected you to go into government and look into their plight, so how can you tell them that they should think outside the box? It’s you the leader who must be innovative and think outside the box, that’s what you were elected to do. If your thinking outside the box means turning kandolo into a staple food and that’s the end of your thinking capacity, then you must not complain when people condemn your leadership.

The PF needs to go back to the discussion about real issues. This ‘kandolo-conomics’ they are bringing is senseless. First of all, it’s not like kandolo is being distributed for free anywhere. Kandolo is just as expensive as any other foodstuff. Secondly, kandolo is a seasonal food crop. Once the season is over, what will they ask the people to eat? Shame!